Rare Photos Of The Beatles To Auction In March

BBC reports that unpublished color photos of The Beatles during their first tour of the US are set to be auctioned off. The 65 slides include several stages shots, one of which features George Harrison with the red Rickenbacker guitar that appeared in A Hard Day’s Night.

The photos were taken by physicist Dr. Robert “Bob” Beck. The band played a series of sell-out concerts in the US in August 1964 after an appearance on the Ed Sullivan show in February. Beck was a researcher and inventor who died in 2002, and had a huge collection of photos and slides in his Hollywood home.

After the US success of the band, color photography and film was more widely used for their 1965 and 1966 appearances. The 1965 Shea Stadium show was filmed in color by the BBc.

Ernie Sutton from the British Beatles Fan Club said: “These photographs show The Beatles during their 1964 US tour, both on and off-stage. New photographs that emerge of The Beatles are always of interest to the fans, but with the majority of photographs from this tour in black and white, it is a delight to see color photographs from that historic tour.“

The slides feature close-up shots of the Las Vegas Sahara Hotel press conference, the Las Vegas Convention Center concert and shots of a private party at the Beverly Hills mansion of then president of Capitol Records, Alan Livingston.

They will be auctioned off on March 22, 50 years to the day in 1963 when the band released their album Please Please Me, their first.

Auctioneer Paul Fairweather, of Omega Auctions in Stockport, Cheshire, said: “This is a fabulous collection, particularly given that all the slides are in color.“

They will be sold with the copyright and could sell between $16,253 and $24,379.